He could go from the Asian Tour to the European Tour and eventually to the PGA Tour. Or he could play well in the fall in three PGA Tour events in Asia, assuming he qualifies. Or he could win just the right tournament on the Asian Tour and get into some World Golf Championships.

“I’m getting in position to open those doors,” said Henson, the former Palm Desert High School golfer who is in his eighth year on the Asian Tour. “I just haven’t wiggled the lock yet.”

Henson is at least rattling some doors on the Asian Tour this season. After 18 months away from the game because of surgeries on both wrists, the 38-year-old Henson has started 2018 with some of his best golf in years. In five starts on the Asian Tour, Henson has finished eighth, fourth, 10th and 11th, with one missed cut mixed in. It has pushed Henson to fifth on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit and seen him rise more than 1,400 spots in the Official World Golf Rankings to 414th.

Back in the desert for four weeks as the Asian Tour takes a break, Henson says he knows more than ever that he has the game to reach his long-term goal of playing on the PGA Tour.

“Am I content with my life? Yes. But I’m not really content with where I am in my career,” said Henson at The Palms Golf Club in La Quinta, where he plays and trains in the desert. “I still want to play in majors. I still want to play on the PGA Tour. I know I’m good enough now. I’ve played enough professional golf to know I’m good enough to play out there. It’s just getting there.”

For Henson, a past winner on the Asian Tour and the Asian Developmental Tour, his recent play is particularly gratifying because he was forced away from the game starting in the summer of 2016. A broken right wrist when he was 7 developed that summer into a floating bone piece and a ligament tear. After surgery in Los Angeles and some rehab time, Henson was ready to play again when pain in his left wrist was diagnosed in the spring of 2017 as a cartilage tear. After arthroscopic surgery for that injury and more rehab, Henson’s right wrist flared up again.

“So I took 10 weeks off and I came back and I still had some issues there, and we did a cortisone shot in there and after that I’ve been fine,” Henson said.

The time away from the game seems to have helped Henson’s focus as well as his overall fitness, since he spent time working on his body more than his game during the 18 months off.

“I noticed that my drive was kind of depleted because I didn’t know when I could play,” Henson admits. “So I wasn’t excited to come and work on my short game, even though I could. I wanted full rest, I wanted to get away from the game, let my mind kind of recover.

"So I started to do other things to keep me busy. But once I was healthy, then the hunger came back, the drive came back, the excitement came back. I was excited to practice, excited to train.”

The comeback on the Asian Tour started with a tie for eighth at the SMBC Singapore Open, followed by a fourth-place finish at the Leopalace Myanmar Open. The big chance came at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia, an event co-sponsored by the European Tour. Henson was in the final group on Sunday but dropped to 10th.

“Maybank was a big opportunity for me. If I win that week, it opens all the doors,” Henson said.

Still, the strong results, including a tie for 11th in the ISPA HANDA New Zealand Open, has enabled Henson to regain status on the Asian Tour after starting the year on a medical exemption. Now he has goals for later in the season, other than trying to win each time he plays.

“The goal right now is to get into the CIMB (in Malaysia), the HSBC (WGC event in Singapore) and the CJ Cup (in Korea), which those three are PGA Tour events in October,” Henson said. “Those are massive. And if I can get into those, and make 150 grand or more, that’s going to get me in the Web.com Tour playoffs the following year, in 2019.”

The recent strong play has also opened other doors for Henson recently. Henson, who lives at and is sponsored by Black Mountain Resort near the coast of southern Thailand, has started a new relationship this year with Habitat for Humanity, the Asian branch of the organization that builds homes for people.

“Jimmy Masrin, the president of the board for the Asia Tour, is the CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Indonesia. They became our sponsor for our Order of Merits this year,” Henson said. “They came to me and asked me if I wanted to be an ambassador, I said absolutely yes. I didn’t even ask what was required of me. I just thought it was an awesome charity to be involved with. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I just haven’t had the opportunity.”

While being a part of some of the home builds in Asia will be exciting for Henson, he’s still focused mostly on getting into those three PGA Tour events in Asia in October. But to qualify, Henson, who has earned $131,983 this year, knows he’ll still have to play well this summer.

“This summer, the tournaments will be important,” Henson said. “I have to be around $250,000 or $300,000 to qualify. That’s the goal, $300,000.”